What is Cover 6 coverage in football?
Cover 6 plays two different coverages at once: quarters on one side of the field and two-deep on the other. It exists because the two halves of a field are not the same. The wide side has more grass and needs more deep defenders; the short side has less and can spare one. The name is a piece of coaching arithmetic, four plus two, and it is usually said as quarter-quarter-half.
Why Cover 6 works
It puts the defenders where the grass is
When the ball is not in the middle of the field, one side is much wider than the other. Playing the same coverage on both sides means one defender is covering far more ground than another for no reason. Cover 6 fixes an imbalance the offense created by choosing where to line up.
The short side gets an extra underneath defender
Because one deep player covers that whole half, the player who would have been the second deep defender is free. He goes into the flat or the hook, which is where a boundary offense throws, and where the ball comes out fastest.
It looks like two other coverages and is neither
A quarterback reading one side sees quarters and a quarterback reading the other sees Cover 2. Either read is correct and neither is complete, which is the point. Split-field coverage is the cheapest way to make a defense hard to identify without making it hard to play.
What changed, and what did not
Cover 6 is half of one coverage bolted to half of another. Put quarters beside it and the join is obvious: one side of the field is identical and the other has lost a defender.
- Quarters on both sides · 11v11Quarters on both sides in 11v11: Four across the back with match rules, each defender takes a quarter but carries anything vertical in it. Against two-back run looks the safeties are extra fitters, so this is not the soft prevent shell its name suggests. It is the best early-down answer to a balanced offense.
Four deep strips, evenly split. Maximum deep security everywhere, and the fewest underneath defenders of any coverage on the shelf.
- Quarters on one side only · 11v11Quarters on one side only in 11v11: Quarter-quarter-half: the field side plays Cover 4 with the corner and free safety splitting that half, and the boundary side plays Cover 2 with the corner in the flat under the strong safety's half.
The same two strips to the wide side, and a single deep player covering the whole short side. The defender that change frees up goes into the short areas, where the quick throws are.
How to teach Cover 6 in one practice
- 1
Teach it as two separate defenses, because it is
Do not explain Cover 6 as a coverage. Put four players on one side and teach quarters. Put the rest on the other side and teach Cover 2. Only once each group can run its own half should you put them on the field together, and then all you have to say is: you two are doing that, you three are doing this.
- 2
Name the sides before every snap
Somebody has to declare which side is the wide one. A single word, called out loud by one player every snap, before anything else happens. Cover 6 does not fail in coverage, it fails because half the defense thought the quarters side was the other way.
- 3
Quarters side: deepest man in my quarter is mine
The two defenders on that side split their half and each stays on top of whoever is deepest in his strip. Identical to any quarters teach, and the fact that it is only happening on one side changes nothing about the rule.
- 4
Two-deep side: that whole half is one player's
The single deep defender on the short side plays it as his half, with depth, never coming forward. The defender underneath him takes the flat and is allowed to be aggressive, because everything behind him belongs to somebody.
- 5
Talk across the middle
The two defenders either side of the middle of the field are running different coverages, and a receiver up the middle belongs to one of them. Make those two players call the crosser to each other out loud. This is the one genuine seam in the shell and it closes with communication rather than technique.
Three simpler versions of the same idea
Play quarters on both sides, and you are in Cover 4
Maximum deep security, one fewer underneath defender, and no declaration to get wrong. The right simplification when your team keeps setting the sides backwards.
Play halves on both sides, and you are in Cover 2
Two deep, everybody else short, and the middle seam that goes with it. Simpler to call and easier to throw deep against, but it puts one more defender in front of the quarterback.
Flip which side gets the quarters
Nothing says the quarters have to go to the wide side. Put them on the side with their best receiver instead. It is the same call with a different declaration, and it is the easiest in-game adjustment available once your players can set the sides at all.
What changes in your format
5v5 and NFL Flag
Not playable, and the shelf does not list it here. With four or five defenders there are not enough players to run two coverages at once, and the declaration alone would cost you more than the balance is worth. If you want to defend the wide side differently, move one player over and play three deep.
6v6 and 7v7
Still not offered, and it is close but not close enough. Seven defenders split into a three-player quarters side and a two-player half side leaves the underneath areas too thin on both. Match coverage is the more useful step up at this size and this site writes a page for it.
9v9 and 11v11
This is the natural home of Cover 6 and where every version of it you have seen on television is played. Four deep defenders, two to a side doing different jobs, with a front seven that does not have to know which is which. It is most often called on second and long or against an offense that lines up well to one side of the ball.
When not to call Cover 6
When your defense cannot declare the sides reliably
Everything in this coverage depends on both halves agreeing which is which. If that call is inconsistent, you are not playing Cover 6, you are playing two unrelated coverages that happen to share a field, with a hole wherever they meet.
When the ball is in the middle of the field
The entire justification for the shell is that one side is wider than the other. On a ball in the middle there is no wide side, so you have taken on the complexity and the communication risk for no benefit. Play a symmetric coverage instead.
Against a team that motions across the formation
Motion changes which side is strong after your defense has already declared. Unless your players are practised at re-declaring on the move, a single receiver jogging across the ball can leave one half playing the wrong coverage at the snap.
When you have not got the bodies
Two coverages at once needs enough defenders that each one is still a real coverage. Below nine a side the halves become two or three players each, which is not split-field coverage, it is two holes. The shelf does not show this card in smaller formats for that reason.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the free flag football play designer, collect them in the flag football playbook builder, and print printable play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw cover 6 for your own team
Open the designer, put your defense on the field, and save it to your playbook.
Open the free play designerRelated questions
What is Cover 6 in football?
Why is it called Cover 6?
What is the weakness of Cover 6?
Is Cover 6 too complicated for youth football?
How do you beat Cover 6?
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Coach Ray Carroll
Coaches 5v5 flag football from kindergarten through 7th grade in San Mateo and San Carlos, California, and built RC Football to design, teach and print the plays his own teams run.